I am addressing this letter to people in the Westcountry who own land with resident badgers and who don’t want these badgers shot if they forage on neighbouring land after the expected badger cull is finally announced.

With urgency, you should reply to Defra’s latest consultation on the badger cull. This closes on 20th of this month. The latest consultation is on the details of how the cull will work, and not whether or not there should be a cull. And at paragraph 3.6 of Annex H of the consultation it suggests that local farmers’ badger culling groups (which Defra calls “licence applicants”) should negotiate with landowners who have badgers resident on their land and who don’t want these shot (who Defra call “non-participants”) if they wander into a badger culling area.

I am such a landowner myself, managing a fifty acre commercial woodland with resident badgers.

The paragraph reads: “If a non-participant expressly does not want badgers resident on its land removed by culling operations on immediately adjoining land, then we expect licence applicants to take reasonable steps to negotiate an agreed approach to badger control operations along the relevant boundary with that landowner/occupier.

“Where agreement is not reached, Natural England may advise applicants on the appropriate approach to take on a case by case basis.” This paragraph recognises for the first time that landowners other than farmers, such as those who manage nature reserves, wildlife watching businesses and individuals who manage land in whole or in part for wildlife conservation, have standing in the eyes of the Coalition and a direct interest in a badger cull.

Such negotiation could include an offer to have your own badgers vaccinated by lay vaccinators; such vaccinators are already trained and licenced by Natural England. My understanding is that the NFU, around whose wishes a cull has been organised, will not be happy with this proposal, and would like to see paragraph 3.6 removed. A close reading of the farming press reveals the NFU is unhappy with other parts of the latest proposals, so wants many other changes as well, and they are lobbying for these.

It is vital that non-participant conservation landowners should email Defra demanding paragraph 3.6 of Annex H be retained, to: TBBC@defra.gsi.gov.uk. (The full new consultation can be found at Defra’s website at: www.defra.gov.uk/consult/files/bovinetb-guidance-ne-110719.pdf).

Now is not the time to sign petitions or write to the newspapers against a cull. This government has the political will to progress to a badger cull. The reality is there will be a cull unless there is a successful judicial review. Conservation landowners with resident badgers should have a Plan B. And that Plan B is to demand that paragraph 3.6, on negotiation, be retained. And then to negotiate. Please act now.

Theo Hopkins

Lifton